Special Report Transcript Episode 36, Section 4, Time 21:27

This relationship between the hostels and a third force was often spoken of in the same breath as taxi wars and train violence. // Hostel dwellers are amongst the poorest and most isolated of urban communities and this obviously provided a fertile ground for sewing any seeds of division and hatred that were necessary for township war.

Train violence first emerged in July 1900 with a series of attacks on commuters travelling on the Johannesburg-Soweto line, leaving one person dead and about 30 injured. Between 1990 and 1993, approximately 572 people died in more than 600 incidents of train violence. What started as unplanned ...